Deck-Design Software From Luxwood

After decades of developing software for the lumber and building materials markets, Luxwood Software Tools has brought to market deck building software for the individual contractor. And a recently formed strategic partnership with CADSoft means you’ll be able to design a whole house including yard, deck, and landscaping.

There are two versions that remodelers who build decks will find worthwhile. The first is a design-only package. Bring a tablet PC to a client meeting and you can design on the spot — take a picture of the home, create the deck, place it on the house, and show it off immediately, or print out a photorealistic three-dimensional PDF.

Upgrade to the business version and you get the design capability as well as a whole back-end of information such as a bill of materials — everything from railings and planking to the amount of concrete or number of screws you will need; all the drawings you’d need for permits; a database of parts and pricing, which is billed from a point-of-sales system or from your own product list in QuickBooks or Microsoft Excel; engineering details; and the ability to design using multiple manufacturer catalogs. The software will export a quote that you can send to or show a customer immediately. It can also factor in local building code information (that you’ve input) and give you a stress analysis.